[Optics of self-portrait painting]. / L'optique de l'autoportrait.

This paper is a study of the relationships between optics, right or left handedness and self-portrait, according to the concepts elaborated by Arthur Linksz. Four topics are studied: 1) Image reversal in the looking-glass: making his self-portrait, the painter looks at an self-image in a mirror, and so is copying an image of himself where right and left are, so to speak, inverted; eyes, ears, clothes, and above all, hands: the real right hand is the left hand in the picture, and the real left hand is the right hand in the picture. 2) Due to this reversal, the painter has two possibilities: either he can accept this apparent reversal, and represent himself as left-handed (painting using his left hand); or he can refuse this apparent reversal, and correct the reflected image in the picture. Both these options have in fact been used by painters, depending on whether they painted before or after the birth of photography: before photography, painters, generally, refused to seem left-handed; so, they used many tricks to correct the reflected image: suppression of the two hands in the self-portrait; suppression of the painted left hand (i.e. the real right hand); brushstroke in the painted right hand (i.e. the real left hand) and/or palette in the left painted hand (i.e.; the real right hand); only a few painters accepted to seem appearing left-handed in the self-portrait.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)